To Know Her By Name
by TheGladElf
Summary: The big moment has finally come. The Greeks have made it to Camp Jupiter and a certain boyfriend and girlfriend are about to be reunited.
1. We Wave the White Flag

It's an odd feeling to have the sun rise below you. Being on a flying ship, I suppose I should have expected it, but still my mind was used to having certain things (like the sun) stay constant and explainable—even if my explanation would have most people doubting my sanity.

For example, most mortals would think I was crazy for feeling like Dawn was mocking me. But I couldn't help but feel that way as she rose bright and chipper this morning. Homer's rosy-fingered dawn in all her gods' forsaken glory. She wasn't the only one who thought I needed to lighten up. Piper had been in my ear incessantly since we set sail yesterday.

Wasn't I excited? In a few hours we'd be at the Camp Jupiter and I'd be back with Percy.

A part of me wanted her to shut up, because all of her prodding just made me more anxious. What if it wasn't that easy? What if Percy had found a Piper? But the rational part of me knew she was just trying to distract herself from her own dilemma. She didn't see what I saw. She was too wrapped up in the situation.

As we got closer to Mt. Tam, Piper was joined by others. Clarisse. Leo. And the Stoll brothers telling me not to let Percy get too carried away. Grover too. They were all waiting to see what I'd do. All of them should know by now, I'd do what I always do. Wait till I had some idea of what I was facing. Percy was the kelp-brained, impulsive one. My mother was goddess of wisdom and battle strategy—I didn't do impulsive…normally. And when I did, it was usually Seaweed Brain's fault.

"How much longer?" I asked, coming up behind Jason. He looked back at me from his place at the wheel.

"Not much. We might want to run up the white flag soon. I hope it's enough." His hands were tight on the wheel.

I understood some of his anxiety. He has more than enough to worry about without wondering if his former friends would shoot him out of the sky. I knew if things had been reversed, "Hey guys, check out the flying ship," would not be our first reaction (well, maybe with the Hephaestus kids). No. In a camp full of ADHD teens it would be shoot first, ask "Friend or foe" later.

"We'll be fine," I assured him. Because that was my job.

Lucky for us the flag worked. As the outer fringes of Camp Jupiter came into to view there were no arrows or other projectiles to dodge. Instead we were greeted by a flank of very hostile looking demigods.

Jason was our magic charm. So I let him do the talking.

Not that he got to do much. One look at his face and the situation transformed from possible chain gang to jubilant riot. One kid, he must have been a son of Herm—Mercury, sprinted ahead of us into the main camp yelling, "Sparky's back!" Leo about died laughing. Jason rolled his eyes, but happily greeted his old friends. I kept an eye on Piper, because, coward that I can be (mostly when it comes to a certain green-eyed son of Poseidon), I was afraid to look. Afraid of what I would see. Kids streamed towards us. Some coming out of tents. Others, sweating profusely and decked out in gladiator armor, came from the practice fields. They crowded around Jason, clapping him around the shoulder. Piper started to shrink back pulling Leo with her, but Jason's hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. He had that determined look in his eye. The same one Thalia gets when things are about to get zapped.

My nerves grew tenfold. I was going to be sick, I just knew it.

"Welcome back, Jason." It was an uncommonly pretty little brunette. The touch of eyeliner and mascara in a crowd where few girls seemed to have bothered, marked her as a daughter of Venus. She smiled. And I saw the me I had been last year. The me that had been so terrified of telling Percy how I really felt that she had almost lost him to Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

"Hey Reyna," Jason smiled back at her, giving her a one-armed hug. But he was looking elsewhere. Looking at me.

I was alone.

I had been so distracted by the girl that would probably never get to say what she really wanted to say that I had missed everyone as they ran off to surround a figure just far enough from Jason's crowd to keep from getting swallowed.

_Gods. Percy._

He had his summer tan back. He'd cut off the sleeves of his t-shirt, showing arms that were far more muscular that when I'd last seen him. He'd really been working out. It was odd seeing him in purple instead of orange, but the reflection of the darker color did wonderful things with his eyes.

And he was confirming all of my fears.

Because if Percy had remembered me, there was no way he'd still be standing in that spot. Percy Jackson was not the stand and wait patiently for the girlfriend he hadn't seen in months type. He was the running, sweep you off your feet, "Gods, I've missed you," type.

Was his Piper standing in the crowd around Jason, greeting her long lost leader?

His eyes were boring into me as he awkwardly extricated himself from Thalia's running tackle-hug. I wondered what I'd done to draw his attention. My other friends were looking at me expectantly. I knew they were waiting for some grand reunion. Probably with a lot of kissing.

It wasn't coming.

Still unsure of exactly what I should do, I started over. Grover opened his mouth. Probably to say something I wouldn't like. Lucky for me, that was when Lupa showed up. So Grover didn't get to say whatever he was going to say and I didn't have to figure out how in Hades I was going to deal with this. Not yet at least.

"Welcome back, pup." The giant wolf didn't speak so much as we simply heard what she wanted us to hear. "I believe an explanation is in order."

* * *

><p>A little something that I've been meaning to get up here for a while. And since SON comes out in...ah! It comes out tomorrow, officially! Anyways, I wanted to get this up and finished now so that I wouldn't be influenced too much by the book. Not that I can come anywhere near the awesomeness that Rick Riordan will bring on Tues.<p>

And yes, I have read the spoiler chapter. You know that scene in Mockingjay, the one where Annie and Finnick are reunited? I'm kind of picturing a reunion scene kind of like that for Percabeth. Hopefully things don't get complicated too soon.

Anyways, this is mostly finished...on Annabeth's side. Cause that's how it came to me first (hint hint: RR, if you're reading this, I would love a real story from Annabeth's POV). However, once I'd finished I kind of started seeing things through Percy's eyes too. So it's not quite finished yet. Enjoy! And get yourself to a bookstore Tuesday and buy yourself a copy of Son of Neptune (and The Lost Hero if need be).


	2. I Go With My Gut

"_You drool when you sleep."_

It was an odd statement to wake up to. Made even stranger by the fact that I woke up smelling lemons.

Of course, there were no actual lemons. Just the feeling of someone who smelled like them. And accused me of drooling in my sleep. How she knew that, I have no idea.

Ok, well, maybe there is one idea. But I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. I think _that_ would definitely have made an appearance in all the vivid dreams I've been having about her. Very vivid dreams. Sometimes in a good way, but mostly in the bad way…

The point is, I do _not_ drool in my sleep.

Or at least I haven't since I woke up in San Fran with nothing but my name, a sword that is conveniently pocket-sized and dreams of a girl whose name I should know. Whose name I did know, it's just hard to remember when I wake up. Along with about a million other things. Clearing the sleep from my eyes, I rolled out of my bunk. Morning call would sound soon anyways.

Why couldn't I have found a place where camp meant a little more fun and a lot less work?

"Dreaming of Anna Elizabeth again?" Granted, children of Mars, aren't always easy on the eyes. But this guy could have written the book on ugly. Human ugly, at least. He was big. He was buff, and not in a rippling, all the girls are going to swoon kind of way. His muscles were so crossed with scars that they looked painfully bloated. Like someone had sliced his skin, stuffed him to bursting and then sewed him back up. Badly. He called himself Brutus. I didn't know his real name and I think the few who did were too scared to say. I hoped it was something prissy, like, Francois.

"That's not her name."

Brutus laughed.

"Then what is her name?"

"I don't know."

"Sure sounds like what you were calling in your sleep the other night." He sneered. Which really wasn't necessary. A long, jagged scar runs from his eyebrow to his jaw, turning one eye bloodshot and drawing his top lip up in a permanent snarl. The unscarred part of his face did not hold much improvement.

He got the scar fighting the Titan Krios. And I know that name should mean something to me. It's somehow connected to her…and that connection does not do good things for my stomach. The feeling that my time is running out, that every second I spend not knowing where she is, is one second that she is unsafe knaws at me. I don't think safe was ever a part of our lives, but I think we kept each other safe together. Or alive at least.

Brutus was still talking.

"Poor little sea boy is so lonely that he has to make up an imaginary girlfriend." He leaned, taking up way too much of my personal space.

"Dude, back off."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll clean out the barracks the messy, wet way. And I'll make sure you get swept into the bay with all the other garbage." Mister Bruiser didn't care that I was technically the same rank as him. Out on the field, sure, he was like the rest of the Romans. He followed orders as well as anyone else. We all became part of something larger than ourselves. But here, in the barracks, before morning call, I was just the new kid.

"You can't."

"You know I can."

The thing about bullies is that they never know what to do when you call their bluff. So whether or not I could call San Pablo Bay all the way to Mount Tam didn't really matter. Brutus decided to go find an easier target.

Morning call sounded. All around me, people started putting on their armor. Nothing like a little battle practice before breakfast. The few who were still in bed, tumbled out, hurrying to suit up. Nobody wanted to be the last one out of the barracks. Those who were ready went outside and started getting into their phalanxes.

I hurried outside to join mine.

The warm sun felt good against my skin for the moment. I knew I'd feel differently after we'd been through morning drills.

Luckily last night's dreams (or at least, what I could remember) had been happier memories. Yesterday, they had been bad. Details were hazy, but I think we were in a throne room and I think the girl was flying.

The first groups had just broken for breakfast when the cry went up.

"Ship approaching." A silent 'How' echoed through the camp. Then another person called out, "It's flying." With that, the entire camp was headed towards the lookout's post. A magic flying ship meant that whoever was coming was a part of our world. And since it wasn't one of ours that probably meant it was full of monsters. But how had they found us?

There's this feeling I get, when there's danger. A tingling in my lower back. It was months before I knew why. I should probably be glad Hera was feeling talkative when I ran across her one day.

Whoever this ship belonged to, they weren't enemies. But a funny feeling wasn't going to convince my fellow Romans.

Her laugh echoed in my brain. _Use your eyes, Seaweed Brain. _

Yeah, thanks.

My eyes scanned the ship. Taking in the dragon at its helm, the way the sails billowed even though there was no breeze blowing in our direction. And then I saw it.

We were already setting up the catapults.

There were protests as I ran through the demigods between me and the lookout point.

"Wait! Hold fire," I shouted. Teens were pushed aside, I felt a little guilty for shoving some of the younger ones so hard. "Sorry," I said, leaving a dusty twelve-year-old in my wake. They hadn't heard me. Or they were ignoring me. Something in my gut stirred, it was crazy to think, but it felt like panic. "I said, _hold fire_," I bellowed, running up behind them. A good thing about being Neptune's son, people tend to notice when you get upset. Especially when you made the ground under their feet move.

My dad wasn't the Earth-Shaker for nothing.

Everybody froze. The dust stirred up by the catapults wheels drifted around their feet, settling heavily as they stilled.

"What is it, Percy?" Gwendolyn asked, her grey eyes locking with mine. There was always something disconcerting about meeting her gaze. Like I was looking at one of those pictures where you try to find what was different from the original.

"White flag," I said. I pointed. The golden ship was descending now, it looked like it was going to dock at the shoreline. Gwendolyn bit her lip, exchanging a glance with Dakota.

"I don't know, Percy," he began. Crossing his massive arms, he rocked back on his heels. "It could be a trick."

"Look, they're going to land on the beach. If it turns out to be a trap, I'll just sweep them back into the sea. Kind of hard to fight when you can't touch the bottom." The two captains considered this for a moment. Finally, Gwendolyn nodded.

"I want three phalanxes assembled on the beach. Archers in the back," Gwen called. She spun around, dark curls flying. Her gaze was directed at the flying ship, but her attention was still on me. "Do you know them?" I laughed.

"Gwen, at this point, you have as much chance of knowing someone on that ship as I do."

It was too far away to see anything distinctive about the people on that ship. I tried anyways. That feeling in my gut shifted, growing more certain. Gwen's eyes cut to me again.

"Do you think she's on there."

_Gods, I hope so._

Gwen hovered for a moment, waiting for an answer to her question. But I didn't have one, so she soon found something better to do. I wanted to tell her yes, to believe in that tingling feeling that I knew had to be somehow connected to that girl. But what if I was wrong? What if she wasn't on that ship? Or worse, what if she wanted nothing to do with me? With as many months as had passed, she could have gotten tired of waiting for me to show up.

The next thirty minutes were not the most uplifting of my life. I wanted to be down on that beach waiting for them, waiting to see. But if they were enemies, I certainly had a better view from up here. If sweeping them into the ocean was what I wanted to do, well, this was the best place to be. So I stood there, all kinds of scenarios running through my head.

And then the Mercury kid came shouting something that made absolutely no sense.

"Sparky's back!" He shouted as he sped past Dakota and me. Other similar declarations came out of his mouth as he headed into the main part of camp.

"Sparky?"

"Jason." Ah, that guy. "He hates that nickname, but it's kind of hard to avoid if you tend to zap things when you get angry." He grinned. "Had to follow him around with a bucket of water his first year here. He kept setting things on fire."

"Sounds like a typical child of Zeus—Jupiter, I mean."

"How would you know…" He shouted over his shoulder. I didn't bother answer, seeing as he was already headed towards the beach at full speed.

I was right behind him.

First thing you saw when you got to that beach was the huge crowd of people standing around someone I could barely even see. It was like a mosh pit—but nobody was body-surfing. I was going to go down there and introduce myself, I'd heard a lot about this guy after all. Whichever one he was.

I never made it.

She was there, just off to the side, standing at the head of a group of teens. Her eyes were too dark for me to see the color, but I knew it was gray. The gray of waves under a stormy sky. She would probably have wanted me to say that I stopped in my tracks because I was overcome with the emotion of seeing her again. Or because she looked absolutely gorgeous, even in cut-off jeans and a faded orange t-shirt. Which she did…does…but that wasn't it.

It was the sense of utter relief when I saw her that stopped me in my tracks. My lungs filled with air for what felt like the first time.

That should have been just a momentary pause. I should have stopped, taken in the sight of her with the sun bouncing off those princess curls and then been running to meet her. But she was focused on someone else. Someone in the crowd. I took my eyes off of her for a moment to see the tall, muscular, blond guy that had captured her attention. The girl looked like she was going to burst into tears. The guy—Jason, I assumed—was giving Reyna a half-hearted hug when the girl (my girl?) looked down, hands clenching at her sides.

I wanted to deck him.

I never got the chance.

Next thing I knew I was hit by a full body blow as some chick with spikey black hair threw her arms around me. She was followed by several others, all of them happy to see me. They started talking at once, sounding like a flock of seagulls on the beach. I could only catch snippets.

"Gods, Percy…"

"…been worried sick…"

"…don't you remember…"

"...any cute girls. Hook me up…"

"…beth. Wait, where is she?" The dark-haired girl's voice broke out of the crowd. Teasing me with a hint of the question that was burning at me. _Who_? I wanted to shout. _Who is she?_

But their attention wasn't on me anymore. It was on her. The Beth girl, even though I knew that wasn't her real name, it was better than calling her "that girl" in my head. Or Goldilocks…a temptation I knew I'd have to take to my grave if I didn't want it to be an early one.

There was a pause. And her eyes met mine.

_Gods._

They were old, older than the face that they were placed in. She didn't look away. I could tell she kind of wanted to, even though she wouldn't. Then she took a deep breath and started my way. Suddenly, I was nervous. Somehow, I remembered that the last time I'd disappeared things hadn't gone too well for me where she was involved. The faun standing really close on my left took a step forward, opening his mouth to say something. I hoped he was going to ask her not to knock me out cold with her right hook.

And then, thank the gods, Lupa showed up.

* * *

><p>Here you go...R&amp;R please!<p> 


	3. My Brain is Turned to Much

Hours slipped away. Strange demigods milled about, coming in and out of my field of vision. At first, I couldn't stop staring at Percy. The fact that he was alive did count for some small relief—and I was drinking it in. Then I noticed that he was staring back. I figured I was making him uncomfortable, so I tried to stop. Tried to do my job without getting distracted.

It turned out that Camp Jupiter wasn't too different from our camp. I found myself sitting around a campfire with dinner on my plate. Finally able to relax, even if it was for a brief moment. Even if I had to keep the mask in place.

Someone slid in the seat next to me. I was expecting Grover—maybe Piper—who I found surprised me.

"So, are you going to talk to him?" Jason asked.

"Did Reyna talk to you?" I shot back. Jason ducked his head.

"Yeah, we kinda talked." He made me feel guilty. This had to be hurting him, knowing that he was hurting someone he cared about. "It hasn't changed anything."

"He doesn't remember me," I replied, shaking my head. I pushed at the food on my plate. I wasn't hungry and had managed to turn my food into unappetizing mush. "Sorry," I added.

"See, that's where I think you're wrong," Jason said, taking a bite of baked beans. He was acting like I hadn't just attacked him and I was grateful for it. "I've never met him and I knew it was him." That didn't surprise me.

"You've seen his picture."

"I'm a guy. With ADHD. I barely glanced at him." Jason leaned in. "It was like—I dunno—like he was able to relax when he saw you there. Safe. There is something there, Annabeth. Take a look." He gestured with his spoon. Percy was standing at the edge of the circle—glaring. Not at me though. At Jason. And then he was coming our way. With that ridiculous teenage swagger. I had been teasing him about that since the battle in Manhattan…told him that defeating the Titan lord had given him a big head. I refused to admit to him that I thought it was adorable. Right now, I wished I had.

"Maybe I should make myself scarce. He looks dangerous." Too late.

"Mind if I interrupt?"

"Nothing to interrupt," Jason replied. "Just curious about something."

"Get you answer?" Percy asked, his arms folded across his chest. I swallowed. I wasn't ready for him to be this close.

"Yep. She's all yours." Jason—the traitor—walked away from the table. Percy didn't sit. He just stood there, staring at me. For the first time I realized that the funny tingle at the nape of my neck had been his eyes following me all day. I'd just been too wrapped up in my own inner world to know it.

"Can we talk?" he asked. I nodded. There was a moment of hesitation, then he reached down and took my hand. I think I stopped breathing. I know almost every train of thought in my head ceased. Stupid teenage hormones. I do not like being unable to think.

I was surprised that I could stand. After months of missing him and the agonizing hours that had just past, one touch threatened to rob me of my motor skills. But somehow I managed to stand and follow him. I watched his shoulders as I followed. The further we got from the others, the more he relaxed. Just inside the shelter of the trees we stopped.

Percy didn't say anything, just stood there for several minutes. My hand was still in his. And I found that I didn't care why he was still holding my hand, just that he was.

"Percy?" I asked. He turned those green eyes back on me. I gasped. He was so close. Gods, I had missed this.

"I know you," he replied. Percy stepped closer. Reaching out he found the streak of grey in my hair. The streak we shared. "But it's not memory in the usual sense." His thumb brushed my cheek as he played with my hair, it was rough and calloused. Like mine. "It's hard to explain."

"Try," I pressed. This was more than I'd allowed myself to hope for. It was exactly what I had been trying to trample down every time I thought of finding him. And I was fighting the urge to kiss him. _Not yet, _I told myself. I needed to know more.

"It's—well, it's more like a feeling," he began. "I know what this feels like." Percy lifted our intertwined hands. "I know what it feels like to hold you in my arms. To sit out on the sand, under the stars. I know what it feels like to fight with you watching my back. To want to pound someone for making you cry." His free hand reached back to run through his hair. "I know what it feels like to be afraid that you won't make it. And I know what it feels like to kiss you. Underwater, if that makes any sense at all." He was turning bright red. I couldn't help giggling.

"Yeah, yeah it does, Seaweed Brain." The nickname just slipped out. I hadn't meant to use it, but it just fit. It was a natural part of who I—who we were. Percy grinned back at me.

I definitely stopped breathing that time.

"I also know what it feels like when you're being completely exasperating. I know all of that," he said. His eyes narrowed. He grew serious again—which will always be disconcerting coming from Percy. "I know that you are the most important person in my life, but thanks to Ju—Hera, I don't know how I know that. I don't even know your name." He looked away them, his sneaker kicking at the rocks at our feet. "I'm sorry." From the mess area, I could hear laughter.

"Hera's not my biggest fan," I said. And then, because it felt like the right thing to do, I put my head against Percy's shoulder. His arm came around me and he got this really cute look on his face—like he hadn't been expecting to do that—but he didn't remove his arm. The relief was so great I could have cried.

"Oh I know," he said.

"You do? But I thought…"

"She told me—well, ranted to me. Something about being happy to do you any favors, but she didn't want to get on Athena's bad side and there was a thing about Aphrodite in there and my dad. Said she'd made you the key. And then, she started in on Zeus. I think she's getting a little stir-crazy."

"Or just plain crazy," I muttered. "The key? To what?" Percy looked at me like I'd sprouted tentacles for hair. Maybe I was normally the one who put the pieces together first, but I'd had a very stressful day. I deserved a bit of a break. "Oh." Hera had made me the key to restoring Percy's memories. Of course. If we could just figure it out, we'd be set. One more thing for my to-do list. I'd put it somewhere after sailing to Greece and saving the world.

"Maybe if—" Whatever else he had been planning to say was cut off with a shriek. And not the good kind of shriek that you got when an Aphrodite girl had just been dumped into the lake. This was more like a monsters-are-attacking, battle cry kind of shriek. It sounded like Clarisse. Which meant it probably was Clarisse.

"_Di immortales_, please tell me she didn't try to pick a fight with a Roman kid," I said, turning to go prevent a war. I wasn't even all the way around before Percy had pushed me to the ground, Riptide in his hand. Gold dust shimmered around me.

"Some of the kids from the Mars tents may be ugly, but not that ugly." He pulled me to my feet. And then we were running. It felt like he had never left.

* * *

><p>Okay, you guys asked for it. But just to warn you, the next chapter is Percy chapter. Which means that I don't have it already written and with SON coming out tomorrow.<p>

Anyways, lemme know how I'm doing.


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